What is Compassion?

2008-07-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

What is Compassion?

If someone is having a bad dream in which they are clearly disturbed and suffering, what is the compassionate thing to do? Do you talk to them to understand what the dream is about and try and give them instructions on how to escape whatever it is that is troubling them or tell them to pray for divine intervention? Or do you shake them and tell them "wake up it's only a dream"? Then they discover that none of it was true and all their problems are solved at a stroke.

Well, if you are reading this it is because you wrote it yourself. Wake up it's only a dream.

You as Ramana Maharshi - 1921

The Essence of Life

2008-06-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

The Essence of Life

There is no such thing as life - just words in your head, and there are no words and there is no head.

Radical Self Improvement

2008-03-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Radical Self Improvement

There are many sites and blogs on the Internet devoted to self-improvement. This blog, however, is devoted to something slightly different - 'radical self improvement'.

'Radical self improvement' is not just another type of self-improvement that is somehow an improved or more dramatic version of the previous types of self-improvement. It is, in fact, something of a misnomer, as it maintains, perhaps rather surprisingly, that no self-improvement is required at all.

All attempts at self-improvement are essentially flawed, as they imply that we somehow need to be improved. They therefore take us down a blind alley, as they prevent us from seeing that we do not require improving, because we are already who we were meant to be and we never change. This is why I call it 'radical self-improvement'.

So why does the notion of self-improvement take us down a blind alley ? Because it is based firmly on the underlying and unchallenged assumptions that a) we are our bodies, or our minds, or some other object of perception and b) that this object of perception that we assume ourselves to be can be improved and c) that this improvement affects us (we are 'improved' by such action).

Clearly if we believe ourselves to be a body or a mind then it might be seen as desirable to improve one or the other or both. But it is important to recognize that this is what we are doing. We make an assumption about who we are and then act based upon that assumption.

We do not have perfect bodies of course and we do not have perfect minds, but in 'radical self-improvement' this is of no consequence, for the simple reason that we are not our bodies or our minds, therefore no amount of improving our bodies or minds will have any effect on who we really are.

Self-improvement may make our bodies better or healthier, and it may straighten out our minds, but this is of no consequence to us, as we are not these things. Our essential nature cannot be changed. The only thing that needs to be done is to see if we really are who we think we are. And even this is debatable.

This notion, although radical, is not new, but it bears repeating.

To say that we are not our bodies or our minds or indeed any other object of perception is, of course, a purely gratuitous assertion, which you may either accept or reject or, alternatively, investigate.

This blog shall therefore be devoted to investigating the idea that we are already fine just the way we are, we are not forms of washing powder or software that can be constantly 'improved' or'updated', but we are also not who we believe ourselves to be. The aim of this blog is also not to support one belief in preference to another belief, but rather to see belief as belief. The aim is to investigate notions of truth and belief.

If, for example, you believe yourself to be Napoleon Bonaparte, then that will have consequences for you. If you believe yourself to be a body sitting in a chair, then that will also have consequences. If, however, you refuse to believe anything, then that too may have consequences. It is important to understand that the notion of 'self-improvement' as normally understood is based on beliefs about who we are.

This blog will investigate those beliefs.

Please check back later.

RADICAL SELF IMPROVEMENT

What is Compassion?

What is Compassion?

The Essence of Life

The Essence of Life

Radical Self Improvement

Radical Self Improvement